The Huskers welcome No. 16 Vanderbilt, No. 18 Texas Tech, and No. 19 Georgia Tech to the Nebraska Tennis Center for some action-packed Top-25 tennis matches. The event is on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 25-26 in Lincoln, Neb..Concluding the 2013 season, Nebraska was ranked No. 16 giving them an automatic bid to host one of the campus sites for this annual event.

The Huskers are set to face No. 19 Georgia Tech on Saturday, Jan. 25 at 2 p.m. following the No. 16 Vanderbilt versus No. 18 Texas Tech match to be played earlier in the day at 10 a.m. Following Saturday’s results, the losers of the two matches are scheduled to play on Sunday, Jan. 26 at 10 a.m. in a consolation match followed by the event’s championship match at 1 p.m. between the winner’s of the first two matches.

The live stats for each match will be available through the Live Stats link under the Multimedia tab on Huskers.com and the results of the matches will be posted here on Huskers.com. For Twitter purposes, please use the hash tag #ITAKickoff for any tweets related to the event or matches. We encourage you to tweet photos, match scores and updates as well as any interesting facts about your team and players competing in Kick-Off Weekend. Be sure to use the official hashtag on your tweets so you can easily search for tournament information.

This event is the first time ex-coach Hayden Perez returns to Husker territory since his departure last summer in 2013, except this time he will be across the court facing Nebraska as an opponent.

Sixty men's and sixty women's teams will be competing across the country for the right to qualify for the ITA National Team Indoor Championships to be hosted in February by Texas A&M (in Houston) on the men's side and UVA on the women's side. The 15 men's and 15 women's universities hosting ITA Kick-Off Weekend events were designated as host sites in order of their year-end 2013 ITA team ranking. Three visiting schools will travel to each host site for a four-team tournament. The host school will meet the No. 4 seed, the No. 2 seed will play the No. 3 seed, and the winners will come back to play for a berth at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships.

Dual-Match Format

This weekend's dual matches will be a contest for the best-of-seven team points. The dual will begin with three doubles matches consisting of a six-game set, with a tiebreaker played at 6-6. The team that wins two of these three matches will enter the singles competition with one of seven points. Once the doubles point has been clinched, the remaining doubles match shall not be completed. After a brief intermission, six singles matches will be played. Each singles match will be the best-of-three sets and worth one point towards the team competition. If the first two sets are split, a 10-point tiebreaker will be used in lieu of a full third set to determine the winner. The overall dual match will be decided when one team secures four total points. Singles matches in progress when the dual match is clinched will be played to completion. This format of college tennis will be in effect until through the National Indoor Championships (Feb. 7-10).

Huskers In The ITA National Rankings

Nebraska remained at No. 25 in the ITA Top 75 after its success against Creighton. The rankings were released on Tuesday, Jan. 21.

The Big Red are one of eight Big Ten teams in the ITA Top 75. Nebraska is joined by No. 11 Michigan, No. 15 Northwestern, No. 44 Illinois, No. 40 Indiana, No. 72 Ohio State, No. 49 Penn State, and No. 27 Purdue. The Huskers are the third-highest ranked Big Ten team behind No. 11 Michigan and No. 15 Northwestern, making them the only three teams inside the top 25.

Sophomore Maggy Lehmicke, who is 16-12 overall on 9-5 singles and 7-7 doubles is ranked at No. 63 in the ITA Top 125 Singles national rankings.

The Yellow Jackets begin their season against Nebraska at the ITA Kick-Off event. Georgia Tech went 15-10 overall in 2013 and lost to Miami in the second round of the ACC Championships and were defeated by Florida 4-0 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Jackets are ranked No. 19 with one ranked duo in No. 4 Kendal Woodard and Megan Kurey. Nebraska and Georgia Tech have never met throughout history, with this match marking their first match ever.

The Red Raiders are 2-0 to begin their season with victories over Wyoming and Texas State headed into the ITA Kick-Off event. Texas Tech went 20-7 overall in 2013 and lost to Texas in the second round of the Big 12 Championships and were defeated by Duke 4-3 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Raiders are ranked No. 18 with two ranked singles players in No. 58 Kenna Kilgo and No. 92 Lynn Kiro and one ranked duo in No. 25 Kenna Kilgo and Samantha Adams. Nebraska and Texas Tech have met 24 times throughout history, with Nebraska leading the series 16-8.

The Commodores begin their season against Texas Tech at the ITA Kick-Off event. Vanderbilt went 16-12 overall in 2013 and 17-6 in the SEC. Vanderbilt lost to Florida in the second round of the 2013 SEC Championships and fell 4-2 to Clemson in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The Commodores are ranked No. 16 with four ranked singles players in the ITA Top 125 with No. 48 Georgina Sellyn, No. 61 Lauren Mira, No. 78 Sydney Campbell and No. 102 Ashleigh Antal. Vanderbilt also has two ranked duos in No. 28 Ashleigh Antal and Sydney Campbell and No. 36 Courtney Colton and Lauren Mira. Nebraska and Vanderbilt have only met once throughout history, with Nebraska leading the series 1-0. The only match between the two was last season in 2013 where Nebraska won 4-3.

The Huskers began their season against Creighton in a 7-0 home victory before hosting the ITA Kick-Off event. Nebraska went 24-6 overall in 2013 and 9-1 in the Big Ten. NU lost to Northwestern in the second round of the 2013 Big Ten Championships and fell 4-1 to North Carolina in the Sweet 16 of the 2013 NCAA Tournament. The Huskers are ranked No. 25 with one ranked singles players in No. 63 Maggy Lehmicke and no ranked doubles pairs.